Suerte.

This Friday and Saturday I had planned to go to Montezuma--on the Nicoya Peninsula, in the Pacific--with Whitney.  There is only one ferry per day to Montezuma, and it leaves at 9AM from Puntarenas.  To get to Puntarenas in time, you have to take the 6AM bus from Coca Cola.

Whit and I had already planned our meeting spot, so I didn't think it was a big deal when my internet went down around 830 the night before our trip, and was only mildly annoyed when it still didn't work the following morning.

I woke up before the sun rose at 445 and went to meet her, but of course she wasn't there (turns out I was actually in the wrong spot).  I walked around until 520, screaming her name (rude, maybe...) and trying to find her before I lost hope and went back to my room to decide whether travelling alone was worth it or not.

I decided that maybe she'd misheard our meeting time, and so I went back outside just to check.  Sure enough, she was walking down the street towards my house.  I grabbed my stuff and we ran full tilt to a taxi at 542.

Told the driver exactly what we wanted to do and he pretended to understand, but dropped us off at the terminal for Monteverde, not Montezuma, at 552.  Thinking we'd probably missed the bus and upset that we might not get to see Montezuma afterall we ran and got another taxi to take us to the right stop.

We got there right at 6, and literally had to run to get on the bus before it left.  But we did it!  Montezuma time!

Got in to Puntarenas around 830, and strongly debated walking over to the ferry to save some money.  Thank God we didn't, because if it wasn't for our cab driver we'd have gotten on that ferry and left for Montezuma without ever having heard about the tsunami watch that was in effect.

Sidenote:  The vast majority of cab drivers--maybe 95%--won't even talk to gringos unless asked a direct question.

This guy was incredibly friendly.  We got to talking about how we lived in San Jose and how we had been in CR for 2 and a half months, were just finishing up our program, and had heard that Montezuma was a place we couldn't miss.  When we told him this last thing he kind of raised his eyebrows and said "mejor no, hoy," and explained the whole situation to us.

At the ferry station, we asked five or six more people, all of whom said "do not go to Montezuma".

See, the thing about Montezuma is that not only is it immediately on the Pacific shore, it is also incredibly difficult to get to--as in, the next ferry didn't leave the peninsula until at least 230.  If we had gone, in all likelihood we would have been stranded.

So we got right back on the bus and drove back to San Jose.

We'll find out really soon whether or not we needed to, but if it hadn't been for this cab driver, we wouldn't have even known about the tsunami.  We could have literally been swimming at when this thing hit.

Woah...

21!

Well, I can finally drink in the states!

To celebrate, a group of maybe 10 of us went to Steve's Mama Tica's beach cabin.  I guess it wasn't really hers, but she told us about it and got us a great deal--6 bucks a night.

Left on Friday with some of her friends in a bus, so packed in that our feet didn't touch the ground.  Drive was like 3 hours long, including a good hour on a dirt road.  We finally got there and checked out our place--this great compound with a swimming pool.  

Then we went to the beach.  It was this amazing black sand beach, and there was nobody else there besides us  Not one other person.

Got back, and let's say a typical 21 birthday party ensued.  That's all I'll write, but check out this video.

Oh, and Steve's family Tica saw us icing each other--read: me getting iced.  They wanted to play, but didn't quite understand the game, thinking that I essentially had to drink whatever was in the cup I was given.  Anyway, they "iced" me with a crab.  Dunno if I've ever laughed so hard.

One more note: we were the first people to ever stay in the complex--it had just been build--and so on the second night, the owner had it "blessed".  So were outside drinking beers when this Santa Claus man drives up in a white robe with a red cross on it, pulls out his holy water and starts splashing the place.  Nothing was safe--not the pool, not showers, not us... all got sprayed with holy water.  It was just hilarious because we were sitting there drinking during this whole process.

Santa Rosa and ALL of NW Costa Rica--by bus and... pickup truck?

ADVENTURE.

This weekend was my second class field trip for Tropical Ecology.  We went to Santa Rosa National Park in Guanacaste.

Before we even got out of the car we saw a sweet lizard.

Fastest lizard in the world!

Actually the fastest species of lizard in the world.  It was just hanging out in front of our dorm sunning itself.  

Got ourselves situated and headed off to lunch.

No! Rice and Beans?  I'd almost forgotten what those were like.  Luckily I love em, or studying abroad here would have been miserable.  But I digress.

After lunch we hiked to the ruins of one of Costa Rica's only battles.  

Here's the story.  Crazy guy named William Walker mixed up manifest destiny, and, confused, tried to take over Central America (instead of the West) for los estados.  Long story short, the Ticos pwned him by pooping in his army's water and giving them cholera...  Or at least that's how our guide told it.

They had a mashed potato grater!

After, we hiked up to a viewpoint.

On the way back to camp, I noticed a sign that read "Playa Naranjo: 13 km".  A concerted advertising campaign run by myself--with the aid of a couple friends from class- persuaded our teacher and the rest of the class to hike it with us, and so the next day we all got up at 4AM, before the sun rose, and set off.  3 hours and a couple monkey sightings later, we were at a private beach in paradise.  Finest sand I have ever felt in my life.  I also discovered the "panorama" feature on my camera.

So nice!  After about an hour, we headed back (ran the last 3km or so!).

Now for the adventure.  Maybe this should get it's own blog post.  Bear with me, this is gonna be a lot of typing.

Background:  On the ride up to Santa Rosa, I happened to look out the window just as we were passing a sign on the side of the road for the Llanos de Cortes waterfall.  I'd heard about Llanos de Cortes, and I had Monday off (thanks, no class!), so I was determined to explore it.  Direct quote from Lonely Planet CR (don't sue me...): If you only see one waterfall in Costa Rica, make it Llanos de Cortes.

Inspired, I checked out other waterfalls in the area and decided that on Monday I would try and make it to Rio Celeste.

Anyway after seeing this sign I managed to convince Daniella, my prof (who took us to bars!), to drop me off on the side of the road by the sign after the trip on our way home.  I did not, however, manage to convince anywhere near the number of people to come along as I thought I would (something about being tired after a 26km hike...).  Only Mara wanted to.   

When we got there, they literally opened the sliding door, pushed us out and drove away.

The Llanos de Cortes sign pointed up a dirt road that we followed--with our stuff--for about 5 km.  Just when we started to think we were lost, a car full of Ticos passed in swimwear.  We were on the right track.  

Finally made it to the falls.  WOW.

30 meters high, about 10 meters across.  Unreal.

So we took turns guarding the stuff and swimming.  Only stayed maybe half an hour because we were losing daylight.  

Trekked the dirt road from the falls back to the highway.  

At this point we knew that we needed to get to Liberia--the only city nearby with cheap hostels--but we had no idea how to.  And it was 415.  

We started to hike down the side of the highway in search of a bus stop, and probably walked 10 km (in the wrong direction) on the shoulder before seeing a lady on the side of the road trying to hitchhike into town.  It was 515 and starting to get sunsetty, so, fully aware of how trustworthy Costa Rican hitchhikers are known to be, we went over and asked her where the bus stop was. 

"Ven conmigo, chicos!"  

Great.

So we warily followed her over to the busstop.  Eventually we got to talking, and eventually caught the bus to Liberia with our new friend Jamie.  Really nice lady!  Oh, and this whole interaction happened in Spanish (I was so proud).

Anyway, we got to Liberia and took a taxi to our "hotel".  Let's be real here: It was a hostel, they just couldn't afford another letter in the sign.  Kidding, but really though, this place was super cheap.  Our room had 6 beds in it--3 bunks.  We had 2 notable roommates: naked sleeping French guy, and late reading light-keeping-on French girl. 

Having walked something like 40 kilometers that day, we crashed pretty much right when we settled in.  The next morning, we were up before the sun again and caught a bus at 530.  Turns out to get to Celeste you have to bus to Canas (same direction we had started walking on the side of the road before), and then to Bijagua.  

Unfortunately, buses to Bijagua don't leave Canas very often, so we ended up having to wait 2 hours until 830 to catch it.  This was a problem because our bus to San Jose left at 4 the same day from Liberia--which meant we were planning as if we'd have had to backtrack to Canas, and then to Liberia after hiking the falls.  It didn't look good.

At least this guy was there to cheer us up!

Got to Bijagua at like 1045 in pretty bad spirits because it didn't look like there was any chance at all we could make it work in the short time we had.  But we decided to get some breakfast anyway at this cool little Soda on the side of the street (like 1 out of 2 sodas in Bijagua--there must have been 200 total people in the whole town), and got to talking to the Tica lady who owns it. 

She told us that a bus left directly from Bijagua to SJ at 3, so if we hurried we might be able to make the waterfalls yet.  

Having travelled so much already and suffered through "Hotel Liberia," we were super excited to hear that. So she placed a call--we assumed to a taxi company--to find out how long it would take to get to the falls and how much it would cost.

Turns out Rio Celeste is super isolated.  You have to drive 45 minutes offroad to get there, and there are no phones so your taxi has to wait for you while you hike.  All told it was gonna cost us $40, but we didn't think that was a bad deal at all (there are no SUV taxis anywhere in CR, so we assumed it'd be bad).  AND the driver would have to wait while we hiked because the falls are in the middle of nowhere.  We agreed, so she told the person to come pick us up.

Well, turns out she wasn't talking to a taxi company at all... she was talking to her cousin.  Right as we were finishing breakfast he drove up in this tiny pickup.

Sidenote: They tell you never to get into anything but a licensed taxi in Costa Rica.

So we piled into this thing's one row of seats with all of our stuff at our feet or jammed up against the windshield.  The stick shift made it impossible to put your legs straight in front of you.  Cozy, let's say.  

And safe!  We only almost crashed once (went off the road, but just a little...)  

Got to the ranger in about an hour.  The guy on duty tried to charge us the tourist rate--10 dollars--but in Spanish I convinced him we were Ticos (not kidding), so we paid the CR national rate.  800 colones, or $1.60.

We ran (no, actually ran) the trail to the waterfall in under an hour.  It poured the whole time.

And back in under 2.

We got back to town at like 145, thinking we were in a great position to make the 3 o'clock bus.  Got some lunch with our Tica friend at the Soda and finished at 226.  Decided to go to the bust stop early, just to make sure we were ready when the bus arrived at 3.

As we went to cross the street to the stop, a bus--ours--rolled by.  

Mara: "Sure would suck if that was our bus, right?"

Me: "Yeah, hahahaha"

And we waited for it to pass and started to cross without realizing what was going on.

Thankfully, our Tica friend did.  She came sprinting out of her soda screaming at the bus to stop.  

But it was too late--it was already driving away.

Still screaming, she ran back inside.  Two seconds later her husband ran out of the kitchen to the side of the building, threw open the garage door and we all jumped in the car.  He jammed it into reverse, backed onto the highway and proceeded to literally chase the bus down--the first time it stopped we skidded to a halt behind it, jumped out of the car and sprinted up to the front doors.

The bus was full.  

But we refused to take no for an answer and pushed our way on, although I ended up standing at the top of the stairs, definitely in front of the yellow line (I now realize why they do that!).  I spent the first hour of our ride trying not to fall out of this thing on the highway--the bus driver never closed the doors.

People finally got off--so I could move back a little--but I still had to stand all the way back to Alajuela--six hours from Bijagua, and five minutes from San Jose.

WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

Mantonio

Famous Manuel Antonio.

Left San Jose right after class.  The ride was about 5 hours, and we got to our hostel--Vista Serena--right at sunset.  

It wasn't actually in the park or the small town right at the entrance, it was up on the hill behind everything.  

Went and got some dinner and came back to the hostel, where we celebrated the night.

Woke up early, jumped on the bus to the park (about a 5 minute ride), and started hiking to the beach.  Unfortunately the "money beach" in Manuel Antonio was closed, so the beach we ended at was pretty unspectacular.

But from there we could see another around a rocky outcrop in the beach.  Decided to scale it (obviously), which turned out to be a bit more than we bargained for and took about an hour.

Got to the other beach tired and ready for a swim.  Probably hung out for about an hour before deciding it was lunch time and heading back to the city.  Walking out of the park, though, we saw these little guys!

Lunch was good.

We headed back to the hostel after hanging out a bit and getting some ice cream.  Everyone was exhausted, but I wanted to explore, so Whit and I went into Quepos, the town most people stay in when they visit MA.

 Ice cream cone!

That night, we had a bbq.  I made guac!

The next day, everyone wanted to hang out on the beach, but I wanted to explore again, so me, Bret, and Whit took the bus to Dominical (which was AWESOME).

We surfed for about an hour (Bret got hit in the head with his board, so we called it).  Got lunch and started the trek back to San Jose--took about 7 hours in total.

Check out this lady's shirt.  

 "Do you want to go out with me?" says the shirt...

Anyway, got back to San Jose, and that's it!